Pepsi Stuff

Pepsi Stuff was a major loyalty program launched by PepsiCo, first in North America on March 28, 1996[1] and then around the world,[citation needed] featuring premiums — such as T-shirts, hats, denim and leather jackets, bags and mountain bikes[1] — that could be purchased with Pepsi Points through the Pepsi Stuff Catalog or online. Customers could acquire points from specially marked Pepsi packages and fountain cups. Additional points were sold both by Pepsi and by consumers, the latter mainly enabled by eBay.[citation needed] The Pepsi Stuff promotion ended December 31, 2008.

Contents

History

Program inception

The premium-based loyalty program of Pepsico called Pepsi Stuff was launched in the United States on March 28, 1996.[1] Points were distributed on 4 billion packages[2] and billions of cups and millions of consumers participated. According to some sources, the first Pepsi Stuff campaign significantly outperformed The Coca-Cola Company's much-anticipated Atlanta Olympics Summer with growth 3 times larger than Coca-Cola's and 2 points of share gained by Pepsi.[citation needed] Pepsi Stuff continued to run throughout North America due to consumer and bottler demand, and was eventually expanded to include Mountain Dew and other drinks, and into many international markets. In response to the campaign, The Coca-Cola Company accelerated and extended its discount pricing programs.[citation needed]

Lawsuit

A lawsuit was filed in an attempt by a party to obtain a fighter jet for 7,000,000 purchased points. It was dismissed and is reported at Leonard v. Pepsico, Inc., 88 F. Supp 2d 116 (S.D.N.Y. 1996).

Other Pepsi campaigns

In the years after the initial Pepsi Stuff promotion, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have introduced other promotions in a similar vein to the original campaign. Some promotions involved a variety of merchandise, while others involved specific products, such as Cash or MP3s. Pepsi's 2002–2003 iTunes campaign fizzled when only 500 cap codes were redeemed. Also in 2006, Pepsi introduced Pepsi Access in Canada to compete with iCoke, although that campaign ended in 2007.[citation needed]

The competition

In 2005, The Coca-Cola Company launched iCoke, a very similar program to Pepsi Stuff in which consumers collect points printed on packages in Canada. On February 28, 2006 — nearly ten years after the first Pepsi Stuff promotion began — The Coca-Cola Company responded with the launch of its first U.S. loyalty program and biggest promotion ever, My Coke Rewards, a premium program that is managed through four-billion unique codes that consumers can enter online to redeem over $50 million worth of premiums.[4]

Rebooting Pepsi Stuff

In 2008, Pepsi relaunched the program, this time in partnership with Amazon MP3 and with a dedicated website that provides a "shopping" experience modeled on the Amazon website. Amazon's partnership follows to Amazon's actual website, where the option to pay for certain designated items with Pepsi Points instead of traditional payment methods, is available. Pepsi once again relied on celebrities to advertise the promotion, including a Super Bowl spot starring Justin Timberlake and featuring Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live.[citation needed] This promotion ended on December 31, 2008.[5]

Point values

Different products had codes worth different point values; single bottles generally had one point while can 12-packs had two and 24-packs had four. Codes from Pepsi NFL Kickoff 12-packs were worth four points. Items available for redemption through the promotion ranged in value from 5 points (MP3 song download) to 175 points (Vintage Pepsi logo hoodie sweatshirt). Customers could also redeem points for entry in various sweepstakes.[citation needed]

In February 2010, Pepsi Launched a similar rewards system in New Zealand on 1.5 litre bottles. Codes on the inside of the labels allowed consumers to purchase MP3s on Bandit.fm